


Rise and Fall

by Isis



Category: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Genre: Actors, Gen, Post-Canon, Robots, Trick or Treat: Treat, Trick or Treat: Trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 09:58:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12430386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isis/pseuds/Isis
Summary: It looked to me as though what was needed was some old-fashioned intimidation.  Fortunately, nothing intimidates like a murderbot.





	Rise and Fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merit/gifts).



> Thanks to Kate N for beta reading!

I don't actually follow the news feeds, because for the most part they're incredibly boring. I don't care about one corporation's hostile takeover of another, or that some politician left his husband for two women, or that a drone survey found new evidence that blah blah blah. The serials have just as much murdering and double-dealing and people cheating on their spouses, plus there's an actual narrative. Murder's really only interesting if you already know the people involved, and even then, there's no guarantee. For example, I think the story about the fifty-seven members of the Chatterjee Epsilon mining expedition getting murdered by their SecUnit is pretty boring, and I was the one who murdered them. 

But I do have a few flags set for particular things that might interest me, so when a news item about Selicia VanAtta came through the news feed, I took a break from what I was doing (inspecting the metal struts on bulk transportation hoppers; it was a boring job, but now that I was on my own it was nice to have the funds) to download the information for later.

Selicia VanAtta, of course, plays the water-systems specialist on _Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon_ , and her storyline is one of my favorites. I wasn't interested in her personal life, but if something about her pinged my alert system, it meant it had a bearing on the show. 

Sure enough, when I got off-shift and was able to slip into the closet I'd set up as my private space – it had only taken one night in the barracks before I'd decided that passing as an augmented human during working hours was all I could handle – I saw that the producers of _Sanctuary Moon_ were concerned about being able to get the next season finished in time because VanAtta was too distraught to work after a series of incidents involving a fan who had become a little overly invested in her life.

I pulled up more of the feed and cross-referenced the incidents mentioned. The woman had crossed the line from fan to stalker some time back; she'd sent a flood of messages, she'd lurked in the lobby of the hotel where VanAtta was staying on a brief holiday during their recording schedule, and most recently, she'd taken a job on-station in the commissary of the studio that produced _Sanctuary Moon_. VanAtta had lodged a complaint and the studio execs had attempted to fire the woman, but the food-worker's union had intervened and flatly prohibited any action against a member of their collective absent any prosecutable crime.

It looked to me as though what was needed was some old-fashioned intimidation. Fortunately, nothing intimidates like a murderbot.

* * *

Selicia VanAtta might have been an excellent actor, but she wasn't very bright, as she asked none of the questions she should have asked when I presented myself as the SecUnit the studio bosses had contracted to provide for her safety. Instead she opened the door to her residence wider, saying, "It's about fucking time, those cheapskates. You want to come in, sit down for a moment? I just need to grab a few things."

"I'll wait here," I said, and she shrugged and went back inside. I didn't like being treated as a human even when I was pretending to be one; now that I was back in armor, it was even weirder. Even if it was discount armor I'd bought on my own when I'd earned enough, though actually it was not much worse than my original set, which is testament to just how crappy the company's equipment really is.

She breezed out the door and I matched her stride as she headed down the corridor to the transport pod, which meant stopping every twenty steps as she seemingly needed to exchange a few words with every one of the other actors who were heading to their own studio locations. The others mostly ignored me, though a few of them gave me appraising looks which I interpreted as envy that VanAtta was important enough to rate a SecUnit. VanAtta herself hardly looked at me.

At the _Sanctuary Moon_ set nobody even checked my credentials. (I considered sending an anonymous message to the studio suggesting they follow more stringent protocols – I wouldn't send it until after I'd left the station, of course.) I stood against the wall while VanAtta got her hair and makeup and costume taken care of, then followed her out to the recording area and stood against the wall some more. One human came toward me with a clipboard, but VanAtta saw him and called out, "My SecUnit, darling. Surely you understand that someone of my stature needs to have protection?" He apologized – to me, not to her – and I didn't know what to say so I just stood there until he went away.

It turns out that watching a serial being recorded is completely different from watching a serial. They don't perform it in sequential order, but instead they do all the scenes that take place in a particular location, or with a subset of the cast, over what might be a dozen episodes, and so what they do over a day of recording makes no sense at all. It's even worse than the news feeds. So after a few minutes I brought up the most recent episodes of _Journey to the Past_ and watched five of them in a row, while Selicia VanAtta and her costars argued, cajoled, fixed equipment, cried, had sex, and did whatever else the director had them do.

When the cast and crew broke for lunch, I followed VanAtta to the commissary. "What do you want me to get for you?" I said. 

She gave a harsh laugh that sounded nothing like the water-systems specialist's musical laughter. "Oh, we're going to go right up to that bitch." She patted my arm, and I managed not to recoil. "This will be fun."

As we walked past the food shelves and heating units, I scanned the humans in the blue uniforms of the commissary staff, trying to pick out VanAtta's stalker. A tall, broad woman with a face like carved wood carrying a stack of food containers seemed to be the most likely candidate, as she was the biggest female human and I could understand a smaller person like VanAtta being intimidated, but she didn't even glance at us. Then I followed VanAtta's gaze; she was staring, her eyes narrowed, at the rather ordinary-looking person by the drinks station. 

She waited until the few others there had moved on, then strode up to the drinks station. "Well hello, Haiyan," she purred sweetly. Now she sounded like the water-systems specialist – in the episode where she found that the medical assistant was sabotaging the filters. "What a _surprise_ to see you here. The answer's still no. And you're not getting any more money."

Haiyan shot me a quick, confused glance. I'd kept my faceplate opaqued, so I looked just like any other SecUnit, though I supposed we weren't a particularly common sight around here. I could see the tension in her body. Then she looked back at VanAtta. "It's not for me, Selicia, it's for Caro. It's hard for Ben and me to support her schooling on our pay here."

"So go back home."

"We wouldn't have come here if you'd visit us on your downtime."

"Why should I? It's _over_ , Haiyan. I don't want to see you or Ben again." She leaned close, and lowered her voice, but I could still hear every word. "This is my workplace and my station. Stop following me."

Haiyan took a step back, but she kept her eyes steady on VanAtta. "Caro misses you. You're one of her mo–"

"Keep your voice down!" hissed VanAtta. "Caro will just have to learn to live without me."

"Then at least send her some money. It can go in her name, that's fine. But she needs –"

"I don't _care_ what she needs. What I need is for all of you to _leave me alone_. And if you don't go away on your own, my SecUnit here will provide encouragement." 

She looked up at me with a smug little smile. I recognized my cue; I opened the gun ports in my arms and unfolded my weapons, then brought them back in. Haiyan gave a small, nervous _eep_. 

"Well, I'm glad we had this little chat. Now pour me some fizz."

As Haiyan turned away to fill a glass, VanAtta turned toward me. "SecUnit, scrub this conversation from your memory."

"Done," I said, but of course I did no such thing. She didn't know I had hacked my governor module, and I certainly wasn't going to tell her. I carried her tray to the table she indicated and then went to stand against the wall. It wasn't easy to hack into the studio system, but by the time Selicia VanAtta had finished her meal, I had Haiyan's surname and account routing. By the time I had escorted VanAtta back to her residence at the end of the day, I'd done everything else I needed to do. 

Murderbots don't need much money. We don't eat and we don't sleep. I'd bought the armor, and I was saving up for a cubicle, but Dr. Mensah had been right, even if I wasn't on her farm; people weren't shooting at me. I could put off the purchase of a cubicle for a while. If I could have transferred money from VanAtta's account I would have, but the financial cybersecurity involved in withdrawals is a lot higher than that involved in deposits. Anyway, it was all right. Haiyan and her child could make better use of the money than I could. 

I left the studio complex, took a transport to the spaceport, and soon was on my way. I didn't have a plan – I'd left my job – but it didn't matter. I could find something else to do, build up my funds again. And in the meantime, _Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon_ would keep going. I might even watch it again someday.


End file.
